Anchor Text: What Is It and How Does It Help SEO?

Anchor text and SEO go hand-in-hand. An anchor helps search engines and readers know what to expect from your content by providing extra context.

In this article, we will explain more about the anchor text definition, why it is important, and give you the best recommendations when using it.

What Is Anchor Text?

In simple terms, anchor text is the clickable text of a link. It will have a different color, usually blue, to the rest of the body text. 

When a reader clicks on this text, it will take them to another webpage. That page can be from your brand or another’s.

With anchor text, users won’t have to open a new search engine window or a new tab to search for answers. If used correctly, anchor text can answer any questions visitors might have and get you more views on other articles on your site.

Examples of Anchor Text

An anchor text can look like this in a sentence:

• One of the most important factors in any SEO strategy is internal linking.

• WriterZen can help boost your SEO efforts.

• Learning SEO is not hard, click here for more information.

Why Is Anchor Text Important?

An anchor text is important to both your audience: the human readers, and the search engines.

If your anchor text contains relevant articles from your or other authoritative sites, visitors will:

• Understand your ideas better with extra materials without having to look for them yourself, and

• Have more trust in what you have to say.

On the other hand, anchor text ticks these search engine ranking factors off:

• Informative content: It helps add context to your content, making it more insightful and easy to grasp.

• Great user experience: Visitors can navigate through pages of the same big topic at ease, and search engines highly appreciate that.

• Good crawlability: When a webpage is well connected to others, web crawlers will be able to find it more easily.

All in all, a descriptive and informative anchor will create trust between your brand and your audience.

Types of Anchor Text

The different types of anchor text with examples included will be listed below.

Branded 

The “branded” anchor text definition refers to when a brand name is used as the actual anchor text without any extra words. This anchor text optimization strategy will work well when citing sources or linking directly to a website. 

A branded anchor text example could look like the following: 

• “Visit Starbucks for their famous pumpkin spice latte.” 

• “Shop Walmart for their amazing deals!”

• “Use WriterZen for your keyword research needs.” 

Brand and Keyword 

For this type of anchor text, the brand name or branded phrase and an extra keyword will be included. This anchor text will often include contextual information as well. 

Some examples of this type of anchor text will be the following: 

• “Don’t forget to visit the new Starbucks in Cape Town.” 

• “Get more done when visiting Walmart’s pharmacy while grocery shopping.” 

• “You can do SEO analysis with Screaming Frog content audit tool.”

Generic 

A generic anchor text won’t include keywords or reference points. Readers will need to read the text around the anchor text for context on what the anchor is about. 

Some well-known examples will be the following: 

• “Click here for more information.” 

• “View more details here.”

• “Find out more here.” 

It’s recommended that you don’t use the generic anchor text too frequently because it could make your text look like spam. It also won’t help readers and search engines learn what your page is about. 

Image

When you use an image as a link, the alt text can be seen as an anchor text. So, if you can’t load the image, readers can still click on the anchor text. 

Typically, an alt text is longer than the average anchor text because it needs to explain what’s in the image and why it’s used in the text. Alt text shouldn’t contain an excessive number of keywords, and it should be descriptive. 

For example, an image anchor text for a cat scratching post will have this as the alt text: a tall cat scratching post with green flowers.

Naked Link 

A naked anchor text is the link’s URL itself used as the actual anchor text. For example, “Visit https://writerzen.net/.”

This type is often used at the bottom of the content and seen as reference links. 

It’s recommended that you only use the naked link anchor text when they’re extremely necessary because it can confuse readers.

Exact Match 

The exact match anchor text includes the same keywords that your webpage is targeting. An anchor example of this will be linking to a page about day beds with the anchor text, “day beds.”

Some examples of exact-match anchor text include the following: 

• “Get your pet supplies at Walmart.”

• “Check out WriterZen’s Content Creator.”

You should keep in mind that using too many exact match anchor texts could be seen as a red flag by Google. If you keep using the exact keyword, “day beds” over and over again, Google will see that as keyword stuffing and decrease your ranking.

Partial Match 

The partial march anchor text is a variation of the previous type. This means the target keyword is partially included in the linked text, and other words will be included to provide context. 

Some examples can include the following: 

• “Try one of our Christmas gift baskets and our range of coffee beans.” The targeted keyword is “gift baskets.”

• “Get all the supplies for your cat here.” The targeted keyword is “pet supplies.”

Related Keywords 

This type of anchor text is similar to the partial-match anchor text. It’s different in that related keyword anchor text won’t include the actual keyword. It’s an excellent option for adding context about the page you’re linking to without excessively using the same keyword in your text. 

An example of the related keywords anchor text will be the following: 

“Save when you buy dog beds and dog toys.” The words “dog beds” and “dog toys” are related to the keyword “pet supplies.” 

Anchor Text Best Practices

When it comes to anchor text optimization, you need to know more about the different types of anchor texts that you can use in your posts. There are a few tips that you will need to know in order to boost your ranking with anchor text. 

• Don’t deceive your readers: You should always keep your promise to your readers when you’re linking to other web pages by providing the content they expect to see. 

• Avoid keyword stuffing: Keyword stuffing is a tactic that can harm your rankings. 

• Keep your anchor text link brief: Your anchor text shouldn’t include a large chunk of text.

• Make sure your links are relevant: If your topic is time-sensitive, you will need to keep reviewing your links and ensuring that they are up to date. 

• Keep an inventory of your anchor and links: Keeping a library of your anchor text links will be a big help with your anchor text optimization process. It will also help during a content audit. 

• Ensure your anchor text is easy to discover: There are plenty of platforms that will help you customize your webpage. Some of these tools will often blend the anchor text with the surrounding text. You will need to ensure that your anchor text is clear and that it’s clickable. 

• Make sure your writing is natural: When writing anchor text, you will want to make sure that your anchor text sounds natural and fits in with the rest of the text. 

• Always think about your reader’s search intent: It's important that you keep your reader's search intent in mind when it comes to anchor text optimization. 

• Ensure your natural anchor link has variety: An anchor text or anchor link that’s been manipulated to get a high ranking for your webpage can lead to your site being penalized by Google. 

Final Thoughts 

An anchor text helps provide extra information so that your readers can fully comprehend your piece of content. It will also give search engines more context as to what your webpage is about.

There are several strategies you can use when it comes to anchor text optimization, but the most important one is to keep your promises to the readers by only linking to relevant content.